Thursday, February 18, 2010

I was watching ABS-CBN's self-proclaimed top-rating show TV Patrol World's report on the Comelec Road Show where some seemingly intelligent people tried out the new automated TCOS Machines which will be used in the upcoming May elections.

Everyone was shown voting and then after the votes were counted, the much-awaited interview. I asked myself what spin Channel 2 will put into this report. I soon found out, to my detriment.

People who have voted more than 3 times know by now that you only vote for 12 senators. Count 'em, twelve. Not 11, not 13. Twelve. Her comes stupid, who complains on television how he made a mistake and voted for 13 senators. He was so agitated that his vote won't be counted, saying further that he found it unfair that he was not allowed to vote again to correct his mistake in voting for 13 senators. aba'y isang lintik at kalahati rin naman pala ang anak ng tipaklong! Watching television, we are reminded time and time again to take our time to vote to ensure that no mistakes are made so that our votes will be counted. Kasalanan ba ng gobyerno na bobo ka't hindi nakakaintindi sa numerong dose? .

The problem is that this media network actually makes it sound like it was a legitimate concern. It is not a legitimate concern. What is a legitimate concern is how and why people like mister stupid could be allowed to vote in the first place. Simpleng pag-shade sa bilog na hugis itlog hindi pa magawa!

This, plus the discussion opened up by my friend Bheejay in his FB account has gotten me to thinking that we pinoys, through the aid of these media networks, are at the height of stupidity. We are at a point where we no longer take cognizance of our actions and instead look for someone to blame it on. This is how that particular media network works. They make their viewers examine their lot in life and then point at the government as the root of all their problems. We are, in effect, like the man who prays daily to win the lottery but never buys a ticket.

Sad truth is, we are being kept stupid by media because it is easy to manipulate stupid people. When they say jump, we jump. They can tell us who should be our president (which is the agenda of one network who is obviously indebted to the family of one candidate for returning the network to them). Sad truth, media doesn't want us to be an intelligent viewer because intelligent viewers ask intelligent questions... questions which these networks, especially this one network, might not be able to answer.